26 Cents
by Foxy-Glove
Summary: Rogue leaves home and Logan lets her know she'll be missed. ROMY kinda! Light LoRo RoLo?
1. 26 Cents

**"26 Cents"**  
  
Disclaimer: Whatever you recognize, I don't own. Whatever you don't recognize, I either own, or I don't and you just don't recognize it.  
  
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The bus rattled as it whined and stopped on its way down the road again. It was still very early and the few occupants of the machine were curled up with pillows and blankets. Rogue fell into a seat when the bus pulled away without waiting for her to sit down first. She just shook her head absently and settled in for the long ride.  
  
_{She sat alone on a bus out of Bayville,  
The courage of just 18 years,  
A penny and quarter were taped to a letter,  
And daddy's goodbye in her ears.}_  
  
She was looking through her bag for her cd player when she found the envelope. It was tucked discreetly into the neatly folded clothes she had now left crumpled up, her name scrawled (yes, scrawled) on the front.  
"What in the-" There was some change at the bottom of the crisp whiteness, and the letter in with them was written in very familiar chicken scratches.  
  
_{She watched as her high school faded behind her,  
And the house with the white picket fence,  
Then she read the note that her daddy had wrote,  
Wrapped up with 26 cents.}_  
  
Her world was, stop by stop, passing her by, but she couldn't for the life of her quit reading. Her decision to leave, once the most workable choice, now seemed extremely foolish. How could she have left behind someone like Logan? And that was definitely his signature at the bottom, though totally illegible.  
"I thought he didn't know I was leaving. Should've known."  
He wrote about how much he'd miss her, and how he knew she needed to get away from things around the institute so he wouldn't try to stop her. Rogue figured as much when she hadn't noticed him paroling the grounds as usual when she left. She knew he could easily smell the fear in her every time she... well, any time she did anything, really. He had had a talk with her in her room once. That was the day she told him everything. How the voices were ganging up on her, how the kids at school were treating her, how she had seriously thought of ending it all nearly every time she looked in the mirror and couldn't tell who it was who was staring back.  
But the way he ended it nearly drove her to tears.  
  
_{When you get lonely, call me,  
Anytime at all.  
I'll be there with you, always,  
Anywhere at all.  
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,  
And money is never enough.  
Here's a penny for your thoughts,  
A quarter for the call,  
And all of your daddy's love.}_  
  
His daughter. He called her his little girl. She knew he treated her like a child (A/N: couldn't resist) and he told her once or twice that he loved her like a daughter, but he treated all the kids like his own (more or less) and had never actually... His daughter.  
  
_{A penny and a quarter buys a whole lot of nothing,  
Taped to an old wrinkled note.  
And when she didn't have much she had all daddy's love,  
Inside that old envelope.}_  
  
Rogue went through the motions up until that point. Facing one day before the next, taking each as it comes and never really looking ahead to much. She figured, 'I'm screwed anyway, may as well stick to what I'm good at.'  
But now she knew she would find a way to make the older man proud of her.  
  
_{When you get lonely, call me,  
Anytime at all.  
I'll be there with you, always,  
Anywhere at all.  
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,  
And money is never enough.  
Here's a penny for your thoughts,  
A quarter for the call,  
And all of your daddy's love.}_  
  
Not that he's old or anything. (A/N: Xx)  
  
_{Oh its been years since that girl's been gone,  
But when she holds the coins she feels the love just as strong.}_  
  
It was after only three months of traveling that she finally managed to get some control over her powers, just enough to really shut up the voices. It seems that all she really needed was a chance to pull through all on her own. She knew Logan would be proud of her, but it would be another long eight and a half months before he would ever know. Rogue decided to do something with herself that would make him even prouder, so she enrolled in Liberty University in California, the only university to allow mutant students just yet.  
After a while she decided it was time to go home. Her year or so had been wrapped up nicely and she really needed to talk to Logan. Her daddy. She'd needed to ever since reading his letter but didn't want to risk someone else answering and recognizing her voice. But finally she was ready to face everyone again, her running away from the team (hopefully) behind her. After all, she had too much to tell and they all owed her for talking her ears off what seemed like a lifetime ago.  
She had taken route into Bayville that she could still remember taking to leave it, only to find herself left at a bus stop without quite enough for a taxi. She fingered the coins in her pocket and asked a random jogger where the nearest payphone was.  
  
_{When you get lonely, call me,  
Anytime at all.  
I'll be there with you, always,  
Anywhere at all.  
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,  
And money is never enough.  
Here's a penny for your thoughts,  
A quarter for the call,  
And all of your daddy's love.}_  
  
It almost hurt to part with the token she'd been given over a year ago. But she slipped the quarter into the machine and it vanished as though it was just an ordinary coin and not a large piece of her heart. But unfortunately she was out of change so that was that.  
'Aw well,' she shrugged, tugging back on the wire she had used Magneto's powers to magnetize and stick to it, the beloved quarter popping out and landing back in her hand. 'Right, like I would actually spend my good luck charm.' Rogue couldn't help but mentally scoff at the phone company as the other line rang. She asked for Logan when someone (who sounded something like Bobby) finally picked up.  
An all to familiar and extremely welcome gruff voice growled at her moments later.  
  
_{Here's a penny for your thoughts,  
A quarter for the call,  
And all of your daddy's love.}_  
  
"Logan? It's me, your little girl."  
  
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Alrighty. Not sure what to think of this. Finished it in a half hour in the middle of the night and heat so scorching I can't think straight. Damn you Canada, why can't you be stereotypically cold year round? Stupid 32C nights. Stupid three fans not one of which is helping any. Stupid heat- induced migraine. Ow.  
Anyway. If you've read my other fic If You're Good To Mama then I don't have to explain this. But I only got counts quickly one review so I'm guessing you haven't, so I'll explain this. Xx  
I've got about 26 songfic all set up to be written before summer is out. This is my second. I'm not very compelled to write the rest since the first (written on the first day of SV in an hour) a) sucked, and b) only got recounts to be sure one review. **Please** compel me! I want to finish (or at least start) all the purrty Romys and Lancittys I've got due!  
Anyway. There are two more songfics to be written for this mini-arc. There are about 20 in my hopefully-soon-to-be-written-and-not-so-mini Romy arc. Please review. _begs_


	2. Superman Strong

**Superman Strong  
**  
Reading back on this, Logan is beyond OOC, but I typed most of this up in the wee hours of the morning so I cannot be held accountable. And there's a bit of Orolo (Ororo/Logan?) and a tastful touch of Evan bashing. Anyway, here's part deux. And the reason Rogue left in the first place is explained in other upcoming songfics and fics, not this one. But I'll give you a hint, Wolvie's instincts are right.  
  
Oh, right! The shout-outs!

A very special thank-you-for-reviewing cookie goes out to: **Kamae**, **hollypotter5253**, **DoWriter12**, **OnyxFrost**, **youte**, **SarahColdheart**, **Little** **Karma**, and an extra great big hug to **me!**

And thank you **Little Karma** and **Kamae** for adding me to your favs (more cookies for both of you!), and **DemonRogue13** (if you're reading this) for adding me to your alert (more cookies for you too!). In the future I _should_ have something better to give out than free baked sugar, but you take what you can get. Xx  
  
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize, I don't own. Everything you don't, I may own or I don't and you just don't recognize it.  
  
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It'd been roughly a week since Rogue ran away from home. He had made no attempts to find her and kept anyone else from doing so either. At first this brought protests down on him, from student and teacher alike. But eventually Xavier got them off his case somehow, and he was only mildly curious as to what kinda BS he had dished out.  
  
**[They don't ask,  
'Cause they know I'll say,  
"It ain't nothin',  
Just another woman done walk away."]**  
  
Life as he knew it carried on. The Danger Room sessions were equally as spine breaking as ever, he was as hard on the Cajun brat as ever, and he was as demeaning as he had ever been while Rogue was still around.  
  
After a while some of the kids had tried searching for her online, but that stopped as soon as he threatened to pull the plug on their net access. People started to think of him as uncaring, and he never made it a point, from the day she left, to prove any of them wrong.  
  
**[Still on track,  
No I ain't fazed,  
I rock on, all night long,  
Just playin' this masquerade.]**  
  
But if anyone noticed his Danger Room sessions steadily increasing in difficulty when it wasn't needed, no one dared complain. If anyone noticed he was harder on Remy, even slashing flesh when the kid pushed him past the limit, no one but Remy brought it up to anyone. And if said limit coming quicker and quicker until almost anything set him off was thought strange by anyone else on the team, it was ignored.  
  
**[I got everybody thinking,  
I'm Superman strong,  
But that big old 'S' ain't on my chest,  
At night when I get home.  
Well, one look at my reflection,  
And lonely's all I see.  
I can tell them all I'm glad you're gone,  
But the truth is,  
I can't lie to me.]**  
  
But no matter what he did to hide his pain from the others, it always ended up being shown. At the bar, when silent tears mixed in his whisky in one of the darkened corners. Or when he went out all night just to walk the route of the bus stops he hoped she would someday step off onto.  
  
He may seem like steel, but even he missed his little girl.  
  
**[Call you up,  
To get shot down.  
Throw my pride aside,  
And I just cry aloud.]**  
  
Ororo had actually caught him crying out in the garage one night, huddled on the cement beside his bike with his buddy Jack Daniels. He hadn't been proud of this capture, but he had gotten a lot more off his chest than he thought he had been keeping.  
  
This event triggered a few dates with the weather witch, which triggered him to let up a little. He was still rough on LeBeau though. He didn't know how he knew, but he figured he was somehow responsible for the loss of his may-as-well-be-a-daughter.  
  
**[Call my bluff,  
Oh just look at me.  
A fool in love, I'm not so rough,  
Down here on my knees.]**  
  
He figured the reason he and Stormy were getting on so well probably had to do with her own loss of Evan to the Morlocks. She had taken it pretty rough, but he had never been able to relate to her until now. He had always thought of the kid as too headstrong for his own good, also explaining his rivalry towards Maximoff. Clash of the Egos, you could say. He always figured the Morlocks were just a phase he was going through and was too stubborn to come out of.  
  
But if that was the case with Evan, was it with Rogue too? She could be just as pigheaded as Evan most times, so did people think the same of her as he did of Porcupine?  
  
**[I got everybody thinking,  
I'm Superman strong,  
But that big old 'S' ain't on my chest,  
At night when I get home.  
Well, one look at my reflection,  
And lonely's all I see.  
I can tell them all I'm glad you're gone,  
But the truth is,  
I can't lie to me.]**  
  
It was an insult to her how people started to talk about her in hushed whispers around him, and how they muttered her name as if it were a curse. It was all too much and he ended up spending less time around the kids for it.  
  
He found it funny how he was some kinda superhero, but he couldn't get over the loss of a teammate who wasn't even dead or anything. He knew he was considered a 'role model' by some of the younger kids, and maybe even a few older ones, but he wasn't the Superman they saw him as.  
  
**[I got everybody thinking,  
I'm Superman strong,  
But that big old 'S' ain't on my chest,  
At night when I get home.  
Well, one look at my reflection,  
And lonely's all I see.  
I can tell them all I'm glad you're gone,  
But the truth is,  
I can't lie to me.]**  
  
He missed how she was always up and waiting for him in the morning, with fresh coffee waiting. He missed how she always came to him to rant for a solid hour at most about anything and everything. He missed how she never complained behind his back about his DR sessions. He missed how she always had the nerve to complain to his face instead.  
  
**[Oh, the truth is,  
I can't lie to me.]**  
  
He just missed the kid.

* * *

Man, this thing was a pain to upload. My com crashed earlier (I thought it might so I already had everything saved to cd, no fear) and I still haven't reinstalled all my progs. It took me ages to find a prog this story could be uploaded with. So until my MSWorks is reinstalled, I'll be holding off the fics. Pity, I have another two almost done. TT 


	3. How Far?

"**How Far?"**

Alright, I was planning on using My List by Toby Keith for this third part, but I was reluctant to write the chapter because Logan would've been so OOC for it. If you've ever heard the song, you probably see what I mean. I know that if I tried hard enough it wouldn't've been that bad, but I still wasn't too keen on it. Actually, I had fully intended on leaving it just those two chapters.

Then I saw the video for this song and I realized it was perfect for the third chapter! Now, not only would I not have two OOC Logan chapters one after the other, but with this song I realized I could actually say why Rogue left in the first place! So here we are now, and like the last bit this one is just after she left. And the emotions and thoughts are pretty much my own from when I found out about my own dirty, lying, three-timing sob. And this story is based on the fact that I haven't seen Cajun Spice what-so-ever.

Oh, and I got a job so you probably shouldn't be expecting anything new until I get my hours all sorted out and what not. Wow, summer's almost over and I barely got off the ground with my challenge that you may remember being mentioned back at the begining (or not).

Anyway-

**Little Karma:** Always a pleasure to hear from you again, Karma. And here's another... (sees she's out of cookies) umm... here's a cookie! (hands her a green gel pen) It's a gel pen cookie, they're all the rage! And slighty toxic! Great gifts for mortal enemies and annoying pets. Just... don't eat it yourself. Xx

**me:** You make me (the me me, not the you me) sooooo happy! ; ) But I'm out of cookies today so here, have a... (looks around) a rubber watch thing. Ooooh, it's red... Xx

**Fiona12690 a.k.a. Roguey a.k.a. Rietro Lover a.k.a. Person of Many Names:** I honestly hope you do go insane, insane reviewers are just so much fun! And here, have a... umm... oh! A pack of bubblegum! (thinks fast) Rietro-flavored bubblegum! ; )

**Disclaimer:** Whatever you recognize, I don't own. Whatever you don't recognize, I either own, or I don't and you just don't recognize it.

(26 Cents is by The Wilkonsons  
I Can't Lie To Me is by Clay Davidson  
How Far is by Martina McBride)

_[song lyrics]  
_'her thoughts'  
'everyone elses thoughts'  
"speaking"

I don't honestly think a flashback thing is needed, but if it is just tell me and I'll fix it. And I don't know everyone she's ever absorbed, so let's just assume she absorbed some people onscreen and everyone else off.

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'It's your own fault anyway, ya know? It's not like you ever asked about it.'

'Give the gal some credit, it's not like it would've been easy to bring up.'

'Why the hell are you running? You can't run from your head, yo.'

'Where are you planning to go? If you'll just go home, I'm sure the proffesor can find you a place to stay for a while.'

'This is, like, insane! But you totally need it. Pretty soon, you'll, like, forget all about that creep!'

'So what are you gonna do, Stripes?'

'Shut up! Shut up!' The cry of mental anguish she screamed back at the voices quieted them for the moment. Unfortunetly this was a mixed blessing because now she could hear her own thoughts all too loudly.

What had made her do that to her? Easy, he was the self proclaimed King of Hearts. It was so easy to think that he cared for her though, he treated her like a princess and once she gave in to the feelings she really enjoyed being 'loved'. And just like she had feared the fairy tale had come to an end, but most definetly not the 'happily ever after' one she wanted. She could kill him for causing this. No she coudn't, but she really really wanted to believe she could. She just didn't know what she wanted anymore.

Fingering the quarter she had discovered earlier she was comforted by the fact that at least somebody out there loved her for real.

_[There's a boat, I could sail away.  
There's the sky, I could catch a plane.  
There's a train, there's the tracks,  
I could leave and I could choose to not come back.  
Oh, never come back.]_

The bus had pulled into a train station a few towns away when everyone aboard breathed a silent sigh of relief as the gothic mutant disembarked. They had all been giving her nervous looks and she eventually decided that she didn't have to put up with any of it anymore. On a train there'd still be paranoid glances, but at least there was more leg room.

The teller had given her a suspitious look when she asked how far a hundred and twenty-seven bucks could take her, but she got the ticket and waited out the rest of her time in the cold, nearly empty waiting room. Jepardy was on the mounted TV so she amused herself with making guesses, anything to keep her mind occupied.

"The mansion used in the 1995 film Billy Madison, was reused as a school for the gifted in this year 2000 blockbuster." (1)

'Harry Potter!'

'That-wasn't-a-mansion-Daniels,-that's-a-church.'

'Like, Ella Enchanted?'

'How do you freaks know this stuff, yo?'

'Aw, they're just guessin'.'

'Quiet down!' she ordered. She had no guess herself and wanted to see the answer. Unfortunetly an eight-year-old who had gotten away from his mother started playing with the channels. He prompty started whining about how the snow was hurting his ears.

'Nothing you can do about it,' Evan pointed out when she tried to switch the station back amidst the eager shrieks of the child who was ordering her to turn on Transformers. 'Trust me, only the personnel can change the channels.' Sure enough, nothing but static. She sat back down as far away as she could from the brat (who had gone into tantrum mode) and the annoying buzz of the set.

_[There you are, giving up the fight.  
Here I am, begging you to try.  
Talk to me, let me in,  
But you just put your wall back up again.  
Oh, when's it gonna end?]_

It really had been her own fault, when you really got down to it. Things had been going so well with Re- Gambit that she had forgotten to be on her guard. She had let her wall down and it cost her her heart in the long run.

She really should've known. He had always been so careful to keep his thoughts hidden from her, even going so far as avoiding her if she ever accidently absorbed any of the telepaths wandering around the house. She didn't know anything about his family or his past, and hell would freeze over before he came out and told her himself. Sure, she had tried to weasel things out of him before, but she respected his secrecy. Now she saw that maybe that hadn't been the best plan of action. But what could she say? Love makes you do stupid things. Like making you blind to what you knew the whole time.

They had been seeing each other for a while when he surprised her one day, taking her on a date to the local jewelery shops to look at engagment rings. They talked about spending their lives together and mock-planned their wedding. That second thing is what started his luck to be lost. He became a little distant, not much, but enough for the love of his life to notice. Then one day he told her he had to leave for a while, that he had some buisness to take care of at home with his family and Belladonna. The look on his face as he said that name read clearly that it was something he didn't mean to blurt out, and he left before she could ask who this Belladonna was.

He had been gone for a few days when Kitty suggested to just sift through his memories. Truthfully that had never even occured to her, she concidered it a breach of their trust. But as the days continued the curiousity nearly overwhelmed her, and she snuck a quick peek before he showed his face again. Belladonna, his fiancée by arranged marriage, called off. Well, she could live with that, right?

_[How far do I have to go to make you understand?  
I wanna make this work so much it hurts but I just can't  
Keep on giving, go on living, with the way things are.]  
So I'm gonna walk away,  
And it's up to you to say,  
How far.]_

A train's number was called and she checked her ticket quickly. Finding it a match she grabbed her bag and headed out onto the platform. It had started to rain, and here she was without an umbrella. The kid and his mom where outside too, both wearing the yellow dollar store ponchos tourists usually keep handy. Where they on a trip alone? Did they have someone to go back to?

She showed the train guy her ticket and sqeezed herself and the duffle aboard, scanning the car quickly for a free seat. She couldn't help but be pleasently surprised when she found herself in the dome car (2). Getting a seat upstairs was easy since everyone on the train at this time of day were still off sleeping somewhere or in the dining car for breakfast. Her stomach reminded her loudly just how good breakfast sounded right about then.

'Yeah, eat up! Don't want you disappearing on us!'

Rolling her mental eyes at Freddy she dug around in her bag for some sandwiches.

_[There's a chance, I could change my mind.  
But I wont, not 'til you decide.  
What you want, what you need,  
Do you even care if I stay or leave?  
Oh, what's it gonna be?]_

Remy the Lover. Gawd, even his name mocked her. Sure, beau translates directly into handsome, but the English (or at least the Old English) generally used the term for their loves. And either way it still stings.

'Your mind wanders when you're hungry,' Freddy pointed out, snapping her effectivly back to reality. Silently agreeing she took another nibble of roast beef on cold toast to appease the one of few helpful extra minds she was stuck with.

'Freddy, do you think Ah should've left?'

'I know you should've. Bite.' She obliged.

'But don't ya think-'

'It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. I know that's a hard concept to get what with so many voices up here, but it's all about you. And really? I would've done the same thing. Bite.' She did. 'The meat is like rubber, who cooked it?'

'Ah did.' Freddy was silenced despite assurences that the comment wasn't taken personally.

Freddy was always the most helpful voice upstairs. But he was wrong in one sense. It did matter what someone else thought because it was that person who was driving her on.

She had to wonder, 'Will he even care when he finds out Ah'm gone?'

_[How far do I have to go to make you understand?  
I wanna make this work so much it hurts but I just can't  
Keep on giving, go on living, with the way things are.]  
So I'm gonna walk away,  
And it's up to you to say,  
How far.]_

When he finally came home from his trip she had come out and told him she knew who Belladonna was, since she felt a little guilty for it. That's when she learned why what he was about to tell her was called 'dropping the bomb'.

"Remy's sorry, petite, but dis just ain't gonna work."

The third person made him sound so detached, it made him sound as though they had only been seeing each other a few days instead of the few months. What had happened that drove him away from her? He wasn't telling, only offering excuses, and she had to know. She reached up and touched his face, and he unwittingly told her everything she didn't want to hear. The wedding with the Southern Snake was back on, no choice in the matter, he went along willingly. She seached for something to tell her there was another explination, but that was all there was. Betrayal. Willing betrayal.

Without waiting for him to wake up she rushed out the door and retreated to the BoM shelter. Treating her like a long lost friend the watched her for the night and she went back to the mansion in the morning. He offered appologies, of course, but she just shrugged them off, cold as ever.

"You do wha'chu gotta."

It was three days before it sunk in. It was three days before she found herself in a park in the pouring rain, crying her eyes out with Ororo and an umbrella on one side and Lance wrapping his jacket over her shoulders on the other. (3)

_[Out of this chair, or just across the room?]_

His door was open when she left and he was tossing a litle in his sleep, so she padded to his side and kissed his forehead, to both knock him into a dreamless slumber and wish him goodbye.

_[Halfway down the block, or halfway to the moon?]_

And here she was now, on a train to the moon. (4)

_[How far do I have to go to make you understand?  
I wanna make this work so much it hurts but I just can't  
Keep on giving, go on living, with the way things are.]  
So I'm gonna walk away,  
And it's up to you to say-]_

She would go to the stars if it meant she could forget about the way he made her feel. The times he'd promise to never leave her. The time he left.

And until he left her mind body and soul she'd keep going to the ends of the earth.

_[Yeah I'm gonna walk away,  
And it's up to you to say,  
How far.]_

'How far is far enough, Rem? It's all up to you.'

_[How far?]_

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I'm actually pretty proud of this one so I'm hoping to get some good reviews with it. I think it may be because I wrote it in the daytime instead of the red-eye hours, but anyway. I know I probably screwed over what little of an accent I did give them, but I figured I'd keep it light enough so I'd sound the least like a dolt as possible.

(1) The answer is, naturally, "What is X-Men?"

(2) Not sure if this is the wrong name or just a Canadian thing or what, but basically I mean those cars with two floors and a glass/plexiglass ceiling.

(3) yeah, part of the longer story I _may_ have mentioned in the first chapter

(4) metaphorically, of course


End file.
